Category Archives: obedience

When you’re driving your car, there are two pedals that affect your speed – the brake and the accelerator. The brakes slow you down and the accelerator speeds you up. These two pedals can help us appreciate what the Psalmist says in this verse.

When it comes to obeying God’s commands, sometimes we can put our foot on the brakes. We want to slow things down. “Hang on! I know the Bible says stuff about the Sabbath, or about not stealing, or about forgiving others, or about the importance of prayer, but it can’t be that straight-forward”. So, we delay our obedience. We come up with excuses. We put it off and drag our feet. But the psalmist says: “I … do not delay to keep your commandments”. He won’t touch the brake pedal when it comes to obeying God’s commandments.

But that’s not all. Not only does the psalmist not want to slow down his obedience; he’s not happy to coast along either and keep his speed at 30 mph. “I hasten… to keep your commandments” he says. When he hears a commandment, he doesn’t just avoid slowing down his obedience; he deliberately speeds it up. He puts his foot on the accelerator. He wants to get from 30 to 70 mph as quickly as possible. Isn’t that a beautiful idea? God’s commandments are so good, that when he hears them, he wants to align his life with them as quickly as he can.

This is how Jesus talked when he was on earth; he was quick to obey his heavenly Father: “I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments”. And this is how Jesus leads Christians to talk too.

So, a good question to ask ourselves is: what’s the speed of our obedience? Are we putting the brakes on? Or maybe we’re just driving on spiritual cruise-control. Or are we putting our foot down fully on the throttle? When I come to church, which attitude do I have? Which pedal have I got my foot on? The brake or the accelerator? Wouldn’t it be great if we as a congregation were determined not to delay, but to hasten to keep the commandments of God as we discover them in Scripture? Let’s pray that as we turn up on Sundays, we’re like a bunch of boy-racers, revving their engines at the traffic lights, eager to obey God.